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How do we live in joyful fellowship with God and man? That’s the question that John answers in this book. He wrote this letter so that its readers might have fellowship with the Apostles who have fellowship with the Father and the Son. He wants a community living in joyful fellowship with one another.
So, what does it mean to really live in fellowship with God on a daily basis? The passage before us gives us a significant part of the answer. It means to live in obedience to God’s commands and to love our neighbor. That’s the first two points that we will consider in this sermon. The third will be the encouragement that he gives them that they are living in fellowship with God in verses 12-14. So, let’s look at each of these things in turn as we consider what it means to live in joyful fellowship with God and man.
Obedience
Anyone who lives in fellowship with God is going to obey His commands. There is no fellowship with God apart from obedience. “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person” (1 John 2:3–4). The word used here for “to know God” means more than just knowledge. It means knowledge that changes us. We might say, “if we really get who God is . . .” It also means not just knowing about God but actually letting that love change our hearts. To really know God and have fellowship with Him is to keep His commands. Anyone who claims to know the Lord but does not keep His commands is not telling the truth.
When we think about it, this makes complete sense. God is our Creator. He made us. He is the Lord of the universe. It exists from Him, through Him, and for Him. We have nothing but what He gives us. It makes complete sense that if He tells us to do something we would do it.
Now, people today fear the idea of commands. We are almost ready to do the opposite if someone commands us to do something. That is in part because of our own anxiety. We fear that what someone tells us to do will destroy us. We fear that we will lose ourselves. However, when it comes to God, we don’t need to fear this. We know that what God commands us will bring us life. There is nothing that He tells us to do that will ultimately harm us, even though it may be hard in the moment. His commands are life. We will not lose ourselves. We will find ourselves in obedience to Him.
We should also note that obeying God’s commands is the fruit and not the root of our relationship with God. He does not say that we obey God’s commands in order to have a relationship with God. He says, we have a relationship with God, and this means that we will obey the commands of God. It is the fruit of our relationship with Christ and not the root of it. It is so sure that the relationship with God will be one where we obey His commands that we can tell that we have that relationship with God from the fact that we obey His commands just like we can know an apple tree from the fact that apples are growing on it. It’s easy to tell.
Does this mean that we obey God’s commands perfectly? No. Don’t forget what we just considered. John wrote this so that we would not sin. However, if anyone sins, then we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ places His sacrifice for our sins over against our sin. The result is that God is faithful and just to forgive us. If it is not perfection, then what does it mean to obey the commands of God? What this means is that the direction of our lives is in obedience to God’s commands, that we desire to keep them, and that we are grieved and repent when we do not. That’s what it means to keep God’s commands in this context.
Now, what does it mean to obey God’s commands?
1. What are God’s explicit commands? What are the things that God tells us to do? We have the Ten Commandments. We have Jesus’ exposition of it in the Sermon on the Mount. We have summaries of God’s commands in Romans 12. We should know these well.
2. What are our gifts and roles? What are our own gifts? What ways can we serve? How has God made us? Are we a father? Then God has commanded us to teach our children. Are we a worker? Then God has commanded us to serve diligently. Are we a pastor? Then God has commanded us to walk in an exemplary way and teach the Word. Are we a student? Then God has commanded us to study and learn.
3. What are our opportunities? John Milton is one of the greatest poets of the English language. He knew had the gifts and the upbringing to be the Homer of the English language. He put himself into this. Then, he started going blind. Eventually, he lost his sight completely. He describes his wrestling with this blindness in his Sonnet 19. “God doth not need either man’s work or his own gifts; who best. Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.” He realized that submitting to the circumstances of his blindness was more important than anything he would accomplish because obedience to God was first. However, he eventually figured it out and wrote Paradise Lost, probably the greatest epic poem in the English language.
The Apostle John adds a few points to reinforce that this is what fellowship with God means. He says, first, the love of God makes us obedient. This is how the love of God is made complete in us. This could mean that God’s love makes us into people that obey His commands, or it could mean that our love for God is fulfilled in that we keep His commands. If we love God, then when He tells us something to do, we will do it.
Second, we follow the example of Jesus. We remain in fellowship with Him just like Jesus did. “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:5b–6). This is very similar to what Jesus told the disciples in John 15:9–10: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:9–10). We walk in fellowship with Jesus by doing what He says. Sometimes we may wonder, how do we live in fellowship with Jesus when we can’t see Him? Well, we have His Words, and we can put them into practice. This is just what Jesus did. He lived in fellowship with the Father by obeying His commands. We live in fellowship with the Father and the Son by doing what they tell us to do.
This passage might feel a little scary. We have to live our lives under the control of someone else. However, it’s really not. All his ways are good, true, and right. Everything He commands us is extremely good and will come to a good end. We can have total confidence in giving ourselves up to obedience to Jesus. He won’t lead us wrong. We need to learn to think more positively of the commands of God.
Now, let me make this very concrete. Here’s a key takeaway from this message. What does this look like on a day to day basis? We start asking: what does God want us to do? We get up, and we say, what does God want us to do with our lives? What is on His agenda? That’s how we start to think about God’s commands.
Love for Neighbor
John zeroes in on one command in particular, the command to love our neighbor. He calls it an old/new command. “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:7–8). He calls it old because it has always been the rule for human life. It is new because Jesus showed us how to love in a way that no one else had, especially in laying His life down on the cross.
Why does John emphasize this so much? Because Jesus did. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34–35). And that’s just what John says here, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble” (1 John 2:9–10). Again, love of our neighbor is the sure fruit of a relationship with God and a sure sign that we are Jesus’ disciple.
So, what does it mean to love our neighbor? How do we know that we are doing it? It means first, we value people. Second, we want to have fellowship with them. Third, we are interdependent. We want to give and receive favors from them. What does it mean to hate our neighbor? To have contempt for people, to want to have nothing to do with them, and to not care about helping them or being helped by them.
Now, this can be hard in a world where people do wrong things and treat us with contempt or want nothing to do with us. Jesus knows, and that’s why He gave us an example on the cross. If we are going to do more than love those who love us well and really obey this command, we’ve got to do three things. We have to learn to see the value of all people beyond their weaknesses, sins, and errors. Second, we have to learn to be patient when people are different from us. Third, we’ve got to be able to reinterpret the wrongs people do in a way that releases us from bitterness and anger. The Bible is filled with commands to do all these things and resources to do them. I am just giving you hear the outline of what to look for.
However, John describes one key way we should think about this. To live in love is to live in the light. Just because others live in the darkness does not mean we should. If people choose not to love and so live in the darkness, we should not join them! We should continue to live in love. We should let the lamp of love keep shining. Living in the light is always the way to blessedness, happiness, and joy.
The Encouragement
Now, we may hear some of this as discouraging, but we should understand that John means it to be encouraging. When he talks about love, he says that they were doing it. He says, “Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you” (1 John 2:8). In other words, he sees love in you and in Jesus. I can see that in our church. Here’s a people who really love one another. You can see this in many, many churches, in spite of their weaknesses. You can also see many churches who care about other churches. They help one another here and throughout the world.
After saying all this, he writes to three different groups: children, young men, and fathers. This could refer to those who are physically this way or spiritually this way. I think it makes more sense to see it as spiritually the case, even though the other makes some sense, too.
He says, for example, I write to you children, because your sins are forgiven. They may not have much experience in the faith, but he wants them to know they have a fresh start. They are forgiven.
He writes to young men because they have contended and are strong. New Christians are often very excited like little children who are filled with joy. However, then the shocks of life come, and life gets hard. This is true in the Christian life. There are trials, and as Christians walk in this world, they will experience them. These young men have experienced them and held fast. They have wrestled, and they have overcome.
Then, there are the old men. They are like John himself. They have been Christians a long while. They really know what it is like to battle, and they have overcome. They have learned. They really know and understand Him who is from the beginning. They understand Jesus after a long walk with Him.
This is meant to encourage them. And this should encourage you. Believers, do you not see this in yourselves? You are gathering here today. Why? Because you want to be with the people of God. You want to be with people who trust in Jesus. You show your love.
You want to learn the commands of God. You are studying the Bible. You may have sinned, but you confess it. When God shows you your sin, then you want to forsake it. You want to live a new life. You may fall, but you build defenses so you can live a different way. That’s where your heart is. You want to be a person who keeps God’s commands.
So, be encouraged. This is you. You are walking in the light. Children, your sins are forgiven. Young men, you have overcome. Fathers, you really know Him. You are living in fellowship with God and man. Let’s lean into it by making it a higher priority to know and do with the will of God and keep His commands and to throw off everything that we keep us from loving our neighbor. Amen.
Benediction: Brothers and sisters, we don’t have to wonder what we need to do to live in fellowship with God and other people. God has made it clear in His Word. He has given His commands, and Jesus has taught us how to live them through His teaching and example.
So, let us go out into the world this week to love as Jesus loved and serve Him the way He served His Father.
And be assured that love of God is working in you to enable you to keep His commands and the light is shining in you to enable you to love. And so trust in what He is doing and let your light shine. Now, “may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13).